My Health Journey

For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with my body image. When I look back to my childhood years, I think I was pretty carefree about my weight in Elementary School, but after that it has always been a worry. In my logical mind, I know that it’s totally not true. I haven’t been overweight my whole life. When I look back at my pictures, I see that I wasn’t really overweight, but I can still feel the sting of always being the larger, bigger boned girl in the group. The reality of my Health Journey began in my late 20’s. I will explain more about that in a minute.

Our Wedding Day in 1992

I cruised through my teens and early 20’s without too much difficulty in keeping my weight in the right range. I married Rob in my early 20’s! It was a whirlwind of a romance! I met Rob at his sister’s wedding, but I knew his entire family before I ever met him. I was kindly asked to be the guest book attendant at my now sister-in-laws wedding. It was on her wedding day that I met my future husband. I still remember this handsome man walking into the church working the room with his outgoing personality. He caught my eye from the moment I met him. We had a brief meeting on her wedding day, but it wasn’t until about 6 months later that Rob’s sister suggested that we should go out on a date sometime when he was back in Kansas. (At that time, I was living in Kansas City and he was living in San Diego). Long story short, Rob flew me out to San Diego for our first date, two months later he asked me to marry him at Del Mar Beach under the stars, and a year later we were married. We had an amazing engagement. It was so romantic living in sunny California and “beaching it” on the weekends. Almost 8 months later, we said our “I Do’s” in Kansas and honeymooned in Hawaii!

It was just 54 days later in the midst of a move that my husband, the love of my life almost died and spent 18 days in the hospital. Can I just say this event rocked my world? It was at this time that the series of stressful events began. It started with Rob almost dying, and then a move to a city where we didn’t know a soul. We even had to live in a hotel for a couple of months, while our house was being built. The next series of events that shook me to the core were miscarriages and infertility. The fact that we had two miscarriages, two years in a row on Labor Day was enough to send me over the edge. I was so stressed out and depressed over the loss of our babies that my body just wouldn’t let me get pregnant. After the 2nd miscarriage, I found out that I was Hypothyroid and deficient in Progesterone. The doctors didn’t seem alarmed about my diagnosis at all; they just gave me a bottle of pills and told me that all that I needed to do was to take a pill a day for the rest of my life to solve all of my thyroid problems. If I could scream from the mountaintops, I would tell you that the thyroid medication (that bottle of pills) hasn’t done a darn thing to solve any of the problems occurring in my body. If I had known then, what I know now, I would go back and tell my past self to wake up, change my eating habits, choose non-toxic products, and work to get to the root issue of what was really happening in my body. My diagnosis of Thyroid Disease in my late 20’s led to years of living a roller coaster life. I’ve been up and down in my weight, stressed and depressed, agitated and anxious. I need to tell you that at my core, I am a very positive person! I don’t like to be a “Debbie Downer,” so I’m all about making lemonade out the lemons that I was handed. (At this point, you might be thinking, “Gosh this is really a depressing story, why are you telling me all of this.”) Please don’t stop reading, there is a reason I’m giving you the back-story on my health journey. It will help you understand why I am so passionate about helping people do all that they can to thrive in their health. It’s because I know how this aspect of your life, if not managed effectively can keep you from being all that God wants you to be and doing all that God wants to do in your life.

Ok, back to the story… For many reasons, one that I am sure has been stress related, my Thyroid Disease took a toll on my life and caused a cascade of other issues in my body. I’ve had issues with hormone imbalance, adrenal function, gut issues, and a very slow metabolism. A majority of my days, I have felt like my body was working against me. I know that thought just seems crazy because if you were to meet me in person, it would seem as though everything is just fine in my world, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve had an internal struggle that only people closest to me even know about. Over the years, I have tried every weight loss program, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slim for Life, the HCG Diet and more. I’ve lost 20 – 30 pounds over and over again. This repeating cycle has taken its toll on my morale and has not been long-term sustainable option.

After my Thyroid Diagnosis, we shifted from having miscarriages to fulfilling our desire to expand our family. After two years of struggling to get pregnant, we felt God leading us to adopt. We had a miracle adoption experience and God moved mountains to bring our daughter to us. It wasn’t even four months after we adopted, that we found out that we were pregnant with our son. After years of ups and downs in the baby department, we were blessed with two bundles of joy in one year. Our oldest was born in February and our youngest was born on Christmas Eve. God gave us more than we could ever ask or imagine in one year.

Halloween 1999 – Our Irish Twins

I have learned so much over the past 22 years since my diagnosis! I’m not a doctor, but I feel like I have a doctor’s degree in figuring out what has been going on with my body. I have become very educated on issues that promote optimal health. I’ve spent more money than I want to count trying to figure out the root cause of my symptoms. The most help that I have received has come from doctors in Natural Medicine, Functional Medicine, Advance Chiropractic Care, and other forms of alternative medical practices. I didn’t choose to pursue this path, but it chose me. I feel a deep sense that I am not supposed to waste all of the knowledge that I have gained over the years through all of my experiences turning every stone to achieve optimal health. Instead, I know that I am supposed to share my knowledge with others, so that they might avoid the ditches that I fell into time and time again. If I can keep you off some of the dead end roads and pits that I experienced, then my struggles have a purpose.

Several years ago, I discovered that it’s not just about what I put in my mouth to eat or drink that matters. What I choose to put on my body – soaps, cleaning products, shampoos, lotions, and even make up can cause disruption to my body from the toxins that can be in these products. I decided that I was only going to use products with natural ingredients. That’s when I found Young Living and began using their products. I have been using these Essential Oils and other products instead of using toxic products and I have noticed a big difference in my overall health and well being. I have even been able to go off and reduce some of the medications that had been prescribed to me with the help of my healthcare team. I have learned about strategies to manage the stressors in my life and have begun the process of caring well for my body through meditation, prayer, exercise, and eating clean. I have experienced loosing my aunt at an early age to cancer and have watched my Mom with her always positive attitude navigate the challenges of her Parkinson’s diagnosis. Watching people that I love and care about go through Health challenges has motivated me even more to do all that I can to promote and provide options for how we can all live our best lives! God isn’t in the business of making mistakes and I believe that everything that I have personally gone through is to be used for His glory. I want to turn back and help others who are struggling in this area by providing good ideas and a place to share what we are learning and encourage one another along the way. It takes Bravery and Courage to pursue this path of living a Healthy Life! It is my prayer that this website will be a place where you can come for good ideas and suggestions for how to live your best life!

By the way, I’m still on my journey to learn and grow in this area of my life. In no way do I presume to know it all, but I will do my best to share with you what I’m learning along the way!